The Hershey Company Will Begin to Add “Contains” Statements to Labels as an Additional Allergen Callout

May 20, 2020

At The Hershey Company, we have robust allergen control practices in place across all of our operations. We have a wide variety of products with different allergen profiles; thus, we have plenty of experience effectively managing allergens. We know that what is acceptable for some individuals is not an option for others. This is why we focus on providing trusted options within our product portfolio for our food allergic consumers. In both products and labeling, we value feedback from our food allergic consumers.

To date, The Hershey Company has used the ingredient statement to declare allergens that are intentional ingredients in the product, but we have not used the voluntary “Contains” statement. We have heard from our consumers that they would appreciate “Contains” statements on our labels to make the allergen declarations more clear and quickly accessible. In response to these consumer requests, we are making this change to our packaging.

Over the next few weeks, new product packaging will begin to hit the shelves with the “Contains” statement prominently displayed in bold font below the ingredients statement. The first products where this change will occur are standard and king size Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars, Hershey’s Special Dark bars, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Almond bars, and Hershey’s mr.Goodbar bars. All allergens will continue to be declared within the ingredient statement and will now also be repeated in the “Contains” statement.

While we have begun the rollout of these new labels, this transition will take some time to implement across the entire portfolio as we update and implement new packaging across a portfolio that includes dozens of brands and thousands of individual SKUs.

We want to remind consumers to please continue to read the entire ingredient statement. If you do not see a “Contains” statement on one of our packages, this does not automatically mean there are no allergens in the product. As a reminder, The Hershey Company labels for the FDA “Big 8” allergens as well as for sesame. We appreciate your continued trust in our products and are here if you have any questions.